The True Legend of Princess Bella and the Founding of Jastkowice

The True Legend of Princess Bella and the Founding of Jastkowice

Legend One of the Princess Bella Legacy Series

INTRO CAPTION:

Before there was a crown, there was a forest.

Before there was a village, there was a girl who stood still when the wild came charging.

This is not fantasy. This is the beginning of a bloodline.

This is Bella’s legacy.

THE LEGEND:

In the ancient lands of Poland—where the forests breathe with old memory and the wind still carries the voices of those who came before—there lived a king known for both his strength and wisdom: King Władysław Łokietek.

But the heart of his kingdom was not just in his crown. It was in his daughter.

Her name was Princess Bella.

Unlike the other royals of her day, Bella was not drawn to ballrooms or courtly games. She was drawn to the land. The rivers, the trees, the birdsong at dawn. From a young age, she would walk the outer edges of the castle walls, whispering to the wind, watching the light as it danced through the canopy of the forest.

She asked, again and again, to be allowed to join one of the royal hunting expeditions—not for the hunt, but for the experience of being in the sacred woods. Her father, protective but wise, finally agreed.

With a royal caravan behind them, they set off toward the vast and storied Sandomierz Forest, a place known not only for its beauty but for its danger. It was a forest filled with wild animals, sacred legends, and a silence that seemed to listen.

On the seventh day of their journey, they arrived. While the king and his hunting party rode off in search of game, Princess Bella stayed behind with a handful of loyal guards. Her curiosity led her deeper into the trees, where the sun filtered gold across the forest floor.

And then—the silence broke.

From the underbrush, a group of bears, startled by the scent of humans, rose in confusion. Horses bucked. Guards scattered. And one great bear, towering and wild, charged forward—directly toward Princess Bella.

She did not scream. She stood still. Something ancient within her knew not to run.

But before the bear reached her, a young squire named Jasiek threw himself between the princess and the beast. With nothing but a short blade and his bare hands, he faced the creature, defending Bella without hesitation.

When King Władysław returned and learned what had happened, he was overcome. The squire had risked everything—not out of duty, but love. Not romantic love, but honor. The kind of love that lives in the bones of good men.

The king rewarded Jasiek with a gift of land—vast forested acreage—and gave him leave to establish his own village. But it was Bella who saw something deeper.

She walked to the young man, placed her hand on his chest, and gave him a new name: Jan—which means God is gracious.

From that moment, Jasiek became Jan. He founded the village of Jastkowice, built with his hands and protected by his heart. He married. He farmed. He passed on the story—not of the bear, but of the moment when grace entered the forest.

Through the generations, the people of Jastkowice remembered. Not just the courage of the squire, but the presence of Princess Bella, whose wisdom and compassion carried a spiritual inheritance that still runs through the bloodline today.

That same blood flows now through daughters and sons who walk both boldly and humbly. Those who return to the forest not to hunt—but to remember.

CLOSING REFLECTION:

This is the first legend in a series passed down through the voice of Lorraine and the ancestors who remembered. The truth remained.

Princess Bella is not a fantasy.

She is a mirror.

She is you.

And the forest still remembers her name.